Not a Ghost Anymore
by Andrithir
Summary: There comes a time for every parent, when they are no longer their children's ghost, and when that time comes, they have to learn how to exist once more.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Ah, **_**Interstellar**_**, even to this day I still think about the movie. So I thought I'd fill in a bit of the vague parts near the end.**

**Obviously… Spoiler alert**

…

**I Have My Children**

Standing outside the doors was so surreal. He was going to see Murph again, his baby girl. Cooper's mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and memories, remembering the child he had raised, and the woman she became to be. He remembered her cries, the sheer anguish and despair in her eyes when she believed him to have abandoned her.

But in the tesseract, when she finally realised that he was the ghost, it seemed to lift a weight off of him. The joy in her eyes, the relief in her voice that he hadn't left her to die.

Gently, he placed a hand on the handle, pushed the timber frame open and stepped into the warm crème room. Men and women of all ages stood around the bed, turning to face him as he walked across the room. A father, maybe a few years younger than Cooper, ushered his children out of the way.

"Murph?" he said softly.

The elderly woman in the bed turned her head and smiled. Cooper's eyes began to glisten as a smile spread uncontrollably across his features.

"Hey," he said. "It's me."

"I know… dad," she beamed.

She held out her hand, interlocking her fingers with his. Sadness filled in the depths of his heart as he held the wrinkled fingers of his daughter.

"I told everyone how you helped me… but no one believed me. They thought I did it all by myself."

"It doesn't matter," Cooper said, shaking his head. "You're safe… you made it."

"We both did," she said, lifting her left wrist.

There was the watch she gave him, the leather looked a bit faded, and the glass had a few scratches on it, but it was the very same. She had kept it throughout her life.

A comfortable pause drifted between them, recalling distant memories; over a century for Murph, and a handful of years for Cooper.

"You told everyone I liked farming?" he asked with a chuckle.

Murph gave a soft laugh, but the noticed the sadness in her father's eyes.

"Don't be sad… I have my children… and you have your whole life ahead of you," Murph said. "It's time for you to exist."

Cooper sniffled, clearing his throat.

"I don't know how," he said.

"You can start by finding Brand. She's out there… setting up camp… alone in a strange galaxy. Maybe right now she's settling in... in her new home"

Cooper gave a slight nod.

"You gave me a full life... all of us. Now go. No parent should have to see their child die. I have my children with me…"

Murph gave him one last look, a final goodbye and a thank you, a final apology for not saying goodbye the first time, for accusing him of abandoning her. Cooper gave her one last smile, from father to daughter, and left. There were so many things he wanted to say to her, but some things were better left unsaid. He had kept his promise, and that was all that mattered.

…

**Eulogy**

Tears stung his eyes as he took to the podium, gazing out across the sea of faces. Some were old; others were barely into their infancy. Cooper's family or at least his daughter's family sat in the front row, wondering what he would say.

"Murph… our final moments together was short lived," he began, voice hoarse. "But it was enough for me to know that you made it. It was enough for me to know that even though I've missed your life, you still got to lead a full one. A parent, can only be a ghost to their child, and when they have to exist… when I _had _to exist… I had to leave you behind. I wish I had returned sooner, and I'm sorry I didn't. I wish, I had the chance to watch your family grow up in the world… but seeing them… it's still a bit… unreal. I'll miss you Murph… you were the reason why I left, and why I came back, and why, we're all still here. I love you. Until we see each other again."

…

**Time to Exist**

Awe, it was something that Cooper was trying to come to grips with. These people here, they were in awe of him. His guide, Sanji Khanbu had tried his best to remain professional, but it clearly shone through. Cooper, whether he liked it or not, was a legend to these people. Through the countless interviews of his daughter, Murphy had hero worshiped him. She was their saviour, the person responsible for mankind's exodus. All the scientific minds hailed her, and she in turn, credited her father at every turn.

Sitting on the front porch of his replica home, Cooper nursed a bottle of beer, with TARS at his side. His eyes gazed out across the darkening artificial sky, just taking in the cylindrical shape of the station.

"_No parent should ever see their child die,"_ he remembered Murphy say to him.

She was still his Murphy, right? His baby girl, the one who he would hold at night while she had a fever, was she? Seeing her so old and fragile, knowing that he had missed her whole life, it hurt. Her children were older than him; even her grandchildren were older than him.

He remembered their faces, the way how they looked at him when he first entered the hospital room. They were unsure how to act, what to say. They didn't know. Murphy had repeatedly told everyone that her father had been the one looking out for all of humanity, that he was the one who saved them. Despite that they all thought her work was solely hers, they honoured him because he was her inspiration. He was the guide of their saviour, both in spirit and in form.

He remembered holding her hand, kissing the wrinkled skin softly as if she was a baby. Cooper had hoped that he would've seen her as an adult, barely into the fourth decade of her life, it would've offered new insights, standing on equal footing with his daughter. But it wasn't meant to be. She had grown old, found love, and had her children. As for him, he was the ghost once more, a relic of the world he was either too old or too young for.

He should've been the one to walk her down the aisle. Be the mark of elderly wisdom for her children, and the very same man who would spoil them when she wasn't looking. But he was still here.

"Was it always like this?" TARS asked.

Cooper gave a soft smile, looking across at the pristine white paint on the timber panels.

"It was all covered in dirt," he answered.

TARS settled beside him, providing unspoken company.

"_Find Brand… she is still out there, alone. Wondering if we succeeded."_

Releasing a tired sigh, Cooper pulled himself up from his chair. There were still so many things to deal with, but without Brand, it all felt so insignificant. _Find her_.

It was time to exist once more.

…

**Finding Brand**

"Sir!" a Captain saluted.

_Captain…_

Cooper blinked thrice; it had been a long time since he had seen anyone in uniform, let alone combat gear.

"At ease," he said.

It had been so long since he had last said that. Before NASA, he had been a Colonel in USAF.

"I thought the military was disbanded."

"It was reactivated sir, primarily for the defence of our fleet."

"Air Force… or Navy?"

Most science fiction franchises had often depicted the Navy as the ones who took to the stars. It seemed illogical why the Air Force was left out, and Cooper wanted to see what had played out.

"Airborne, sir."

"Army?"

"Yes sir."

Cooper shifted his weight from one leg to the other, moving out of the passage way.

"What happened to the Air Force?"

"Still here sir."

"Navy?"

"Just restarted to man the stations."

"Carry on."

"Yes sir."

Walking down into the lockers with TARS in tow, Cooper popped a seal for one of the containers, pulling out a black flight suit.

"You know, I could've easily told you that information without sounding like I have a stick up my rectum."

"You're a robot, you don't have a rectum."

"And that nice Captain back there had one in his. Would you like to see my preliminary scans?"

Cooper gave a soft chuckle.

"No."

"Shame… I did a full MRI."

The new suits were a bit more form fitting, and had hardened plates bolted atop the nanotech mesh. It felt like a second skin, assisting with movement rather than hindering like the first iterations. Navigating his way through the labyrinth of utilitarian hallways, Cooper entered the launch bay.

Picking out one of the starcrafts, he was happy to say that the controls had barely changed at all.

"Just so you know… this action is _somewhat_ illegal," TARS said.

"I know… maybe a little starpower will get us through."

"Celebrity status… could work. But doesn't seem fitting."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm thinking something more along the lines of… Messiah."

"Too biblical," Cooper said, shaking his head.

The canopy descended and hissed shut.

"I'll have you know that, that title was inspired to me by a video game."

"Now that's just sacrilegious," Cooper chuckled, starting up the engines.

"I'm a robot…"

"Ghost inside the machine."

"…"

"What? No witty reply?"

"I'm a robot. I fear no divine power."

The doors retracted into wall, beckoning the starcraft to enter the airlock.

"Well, you called me a Messiah, and I did technically revive you. So wouldn't that make me a divine power?"

"If I blow open this cockpit… where's your divine power then?"

"Just… plot a course to Edmunds."

"Course confirmed."

…

Entering the atmosphere, Cooper could feel the feedback shake a little as the starcraft made its descent. Breaking through the stratosphere, he could see the blue hue of the air, and curtains of white clouds shifting with the currents.

"At least it's not frozen," he breathed uneasily.

He wondered what he would find. Brand's signal was strong, but would she still be alive? Would there be a colony waiting for him on the other side? If she had left the gravitational pull of Gargantua before him, then she would've aged more than him, that's how relativity worked. But, would she be dead?

"Chin up, I'm sure everything'll be fine," TARS said.

Taking over manually, Cooper guided the vessel over the mountains, flanking his speed.

"Open up comms, all waves."

"Done."

"Brand, are you there? It's Cooper."

Nothing.

"Brand, do you read me?"

"I'm getting nothing here, just… echoes. We should be coming up on her base in five."

Testing the comms, Cooper tried again.

"Brand come in."

"_CASE here… Doctor Brand is in cryosleep."_

"What about Edmunds?"

"_He didn't make it. According to CAL, isolation got the better of him."_

Cooper let out a deep breath; he could feel his heart hammering in his chest. He barely knew this woman. Well, that would be incorrect. In the short time they had spent together awake, he had picked up on her nuances, a trait he picked up at Flight School. Cooper considered himself a logical man, he rationalised everything he came across, it was in his nature to do so. So why did he want to find Brand so badly?

Was it his daughter's last words? Or was it something more? A connection to the world he left behind to save, a world that no longer existed because it was a foundation to the present.

"There's her base… and the lander."

Unlike seeing the _Endurance_, Cooper held his breath as he bought the craft in for landing. This was it, the moment of truth, the moment when he could tie off all loose ends and figure out his next steps.

Tapping the touchscreen, the landing gear descended as the thrusters gently lowered him onto the planet that could be humanity's new home, or the first of many more worlds.

"For future references, maybe we should go with Doctor Brand's gut feelings."

"Yeah, don't have to rub it in TARS," Cooper said, checking the environmental readings.

The air was clean and breathable, but the grounds here looked arid, but he did remember seeing greenery from orbit. With the canopy pulled back, Cooper clambered out of the craft first, followed by TARS. He stepped out onto the rock and sand, looking back and forth at the base. The American flag fluttered in the breeze with the flag of the _Endurance_ beneath.

They didn't look faded; in fact they looked like they had just been taken out of the wrap. A small smile crossed Cooper's lips as he jogged over to the main prefab shelter. Prying open the console cover, he tapped entered in the command code.

"_Verification required."_

"Allow me, sir," TARS said.

_Rolling_ up to the terminal, the robot's limbs extended and split into finer apertures, to interface with the computer mainframe.

The airlocks hissed open, cycling the two through into the main area.

Reaching up to his helmet seals, Cooper popped the lock. Breathing in the prefab air, he looked around the neatly kept area.

"Where is CASE and CAL?"

"Here sir," the CASE answered, slowly walking out into the open. "You may proceed the waking up procedures."

"How… how long?" Cooper asked.

"Two months," CASE answered. "The foetuses are developing and will be ready for when the rest of humanity arrive."

Gently grasping on to the latch, Cooper twisted it. The protective ceramic plate slid back with a soft hum, revealing the glass chamber beneath. He pulled the canopy away, allowing the gel bed platform to rise out of the water.

Running his eyes along the transparent plastic body bag, Cooper took off his black gloves, placed them gently on the counter beside him, and reached for the zip lock. With infinite care, he opened the bag.

"Vitals are normal sir, she should be waking any moment now," CASE said.

Amelia slowly twitched as her muscles began to clench and relax.

"Hey, hey. Easy. Easy," Cooper said, gently lifting her up into a seating position.

Brand's eyes opened, her dark brown orbs locked onto his grey blues.

"C-Cooper?" she whispered softly.

"Yeah, it's me," he beamed.

"I-I… Cooper? It's… it's… you can't be…" tears began to stream down Brand's rosy cheeks as she choked back a sob. Quickly she pulled him into an embrace, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck while burying her face into his suited chest.

"Cooper? You… I saw you… Gargantua."

"Shhhh," he cooed, rubbing her back. "I'm here. I'm okay."

"God… I… I thought… I thought I was the last one," she sobbed.

"Well do I have a story to tell," he said with a light chuckle, cradling her.

Pulling away from Cooper, Brand wiped away the last of her tears, and climbed out of the pod. Unfurling a thermal blanket, Cooper wrapped the warm sheet around her, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder before easing himself onto a nearby crate.

Amelia blinked a few times, and swallowed the built up bile. She rubbed the bridge of her nose and looked at Cooper disbelieving.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said.

"How long?"

"Two months."

"How-How did you survive?"

"When we detached… we went into the black hole."

"But relativity… you two shouldn't have been able to leave…"

Another smile flashed across Cooper's face.

"You're not going to believe it."

"Right now… I'll believe in Easter Bunnies."

"Your father said someone placed the wormhole near Saturn for us… and those very same people saved me."

Cooper rubbed his hands together before fishing through the crates for a cup and a hot chocolate kit.

"When I entered the black hole, the Ranger ran into some debris, so I had to eject. And then… here's the weird part," he said with a bark of laughter.

"We met _them_," said TARS.

"You remember when you shook hands with that entity on the ship?"

Ameila looked straight at Cooper, blinking twice before exhaling.

"How did you know?"

Emptying the hot liquid content into the cup, Cooper stirred the chocolate and milk powder before handing it over to Brand.

"Thanks," she murmured as she held the mug in the palm of her hands.

"Because… because that was me."

Brand arched both eyebrows high into her forehead, beckoning him to continue.

"When… when I went into the black hole, in the wake of the event horizon… I… I thought I died. The Ranger was torn apart, but… but then I fell _into _something. It… it was like an elevator shaft at first. And then… when I came to a stop… I realised… and you're not going to believe this, I realised I had stopped at Murphy's bookshelf."

Amelia leaned her head forward, holding the thermal blanket around her as her lips slightly parted in disbelief.

"The people, the ones who put the wormhole at Saturn… it was them."

"What are you saying, Cooper?"

"TARS and I… we were in a tesseract. Like you said, these beings, time is another physical dimension for them."

"You travelled back in time, to manipulate your past?"

Cooper pursed his lips.

"No… I was there, from the beginning. It was like future me, already manipulating everything. They built the place so that I could understand. Translated the fourth dimension into something I could see… They are us… future humans."

Tears began to form in his eyes.

"I saw my daughter… as a child and an adult. I had TARS convert the data from the black hole into Morse… Murph solved your father's equation."

Brand ran her thumb against the rim of the metal mug, looking at the floor in deep thought.

"We… we did it?"

Cooper nodded, gesturing to his black flight suit.

"I got to see her again," he said softly.

Amelia scooted forward.

"She was so… _old_. But it was still her. She had grandchildren, and they were older than me."

"Cooper," she said gently, placing her hands on his. "We made it?"

He nodded.

"Murph's equation, it helped the engineers design ships that would take everyone off Earth."

"Everyone made it?" a smile spread across Brand's face.

"They even have a station named after her."

"Meeting her... it must've been…"

"Surreal," Cooper finished.

He gave a soft weary sigh as his gaze shifted to the crates on Brand's right.

"A few years for me, a century for her…"

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Don't be... I still got to see her again."

"If it weren't for my father… maybe you would've been able to see her grow up."

"I know what you're trying to say," Cooper said, referring to Murph's anguished message. "But… if it wasn't for your father, we would've died a long time ago."

"So what do we do now?" Brand asked, looking around the room.

"We just sit down… and wait."

"Just sit down," Amelia repeated tiredly, running her thumb along the rim of her mug. "That doesn't sound too bad."

…

**A/N: Well what did you think? Leave a review and let me know.**


	2. Newton's Third Law

**A/N: Thought I'd write something from Dr Amelia Brand's perspective.**

**Newton's Third Law**

There was just four of them left. By some crazy twisted miracle, she and Cooper have made it this far, the furthest anyone had possibly been in the history of human exploration. But it was all lost on her, the bitterness of it all drowned out the stellar feat she was a part of. Doyle was crushed by the waves on Miller's planet; Romilly was blown up by a bomb left by Mann. And Mann… he had fallen the farthest. He was the pinnacle embodiment of human selflessness and understanding, or at least he was. Those years alone on a desolate world, knowing that no one would come to save him, what it would've done to his mind. In a mad attempt to go home, he was killed.

It was bittersweet meeting him again. Brand had remembered him as a kind man, and a driven leader, the perfect candidate to lead a one way trip to save humanity. But now he was gone. Too many people she knew and loved were gone. A mere few hours for her, and she had lost some of those most dear.

"The backup system's generator kicked in. So the system's stable," patting the panel. "They're all good."

"Good. Okay, the navigate system at the helm is completed destroyed. We don't have enough lifesupport to make it back to Earth. But… I think we can scratch our way to Edmund's planet."

"What about fuel?"

"Not enough?" Cooper shook his head. "But I have a plan. We let Gargantua pull us down to close to her horizon, a powered slingshot around launching us to Edmund's planet."

"Manually?" Ameila asked.

"That's what I'm here for," Cooper flashed a grin. "I'm just going to take us inside the critical orbit

"What about time slippage?"

"Well neither one of us has time to worry about relativity right now, Doctor Brand."

Letting go of the metal rung, she floated closer to the NASA pilot and cupped the side of his helmet. Her gaze locked on to his, watching a pained expression beneath his eyes.

"Sorry Cooper," she whispered an apology.

Her father had asked him to fly the mission, and she had cost them valuable time on Miller's planet. She and her father had taken away the chance for him to see his son and daughter grow up. They had made him leave his daughter behind. She saw the message. Saw Murph's pain as she revealed the monstrous lie of the mission.

He flashed her another smile, as she gave him another pat. The two separated from a high five and headed for their respective flight controls.

"_Once we've gathered enough speed around Gargantua we use Lander One and Ranger Two as rocket boosters to push us out of the black hole's gravity," _Cooper explained over the radio._ "The Lander's linkages has been destroyed. So we have to control it manually. Once Lander-One is spent, TARS will detach."_

"_And get sucked right into that black hole,"_ the robot said cheerily.

"Why does TARS have to detach?" Brand asked in a deadpan.

She didn't want to see another friend go.

"_We have to shed the weight to escape the gravity."_

"_Newton's Third Law," _TARS explained. _"The only way humans have ever figured out of getting somewhere is to leave something behind."_

"Cooper, you can't ask TARS to do this for us."

"_He's a robot. So you don't have to ask him to do anything."_

"Cooper, you asshole."

"_Sorry, you broke up a little bit there."_

"_It's what we intended Doctor Brand, it's our only chance to save the people on Earth. If I can find a way to transmit the quantum data I find in there, they might still make it."_

"Let's just hope there's someone still there to save," Amelia breathed.

_Endurance_ shuddered, her struts groaned as the strain of acceleration pulled against her. Brand felt the ship vibrate around her, thrumming as her seats readjusted against the g-forces. Outside the viewport, she could see Gargantua, and the warp light it gave off into the void.

"Maximum velocity achieved, prepare to fire escape thrusters," CASE announced.

"_Ready?"_ Cooper asked, his voice crackling over the COMs.

"Ready," Amelia answered.

"_Read,"_ TARS added.

"Main engine ignition in three, two, one, mark."

The hum of the engines rumbled through the cockpit as she felt the immediate strain pushing and pulling on her body.

"Lander-One engines, on my mark." CASE. "Three, two, one, mark."

Another wall rushed into Brand, squeezing against her as the engines flared.

"Ranger-Two engines, on my mark. Three, two, one, mark."

The strain increased as _Endurance_ shook and groaned.

"_Uh, this little manoeuvre is going to cost us fifty-one years!"_ Cooper said.

"You don't sound so bad for pushing a hundred and twenty," Brand joked.

The fuel alarms for Lander-One began to chime, the console panel flashing red as the reserves rapidly depleted.

"Lander-One, prepare to detach, on my mark," CASE announced. "Three, two, one, mark."

"_Detach!"_

"Goodbye TARS," Brand said sadly.

"Goodbye, Doctor Brand," the robot said calmly. "See you on the other side, Coop."

"_See ya there, Slick!"_

Ameila's eyes darted back and forth as her brows crested into a frown.

That didn't sound right, she thought inwardly.

The fuel alarms for Ranger-Two began to blare as the fuel gauge flashed red before winking off.

"_Okay CASE, nice reckless flying."_

"Learned from the master," the AI answered. "Ranger-Two, prepare to detach. On my mark."

Amelia's eyes bulged out of her sockets as she quickly looked at CASE, then back up the viewport to the pilot.

"What no! No! Cooper! Cooper, what're you doing?" she cried.

"_Newton's Third Law… you gotta leave something behind,"_ he answered.

"But you said there would be enough resources for the both of us."

"_We agreed Amelia… ninety percent."_

"Don't…" she begged, shaking her head ever so slightly.

Tears stung at her eyes as she looked up at him.

"_Mark."_

"_Detach."_

She saw his arm move to the controls, his face somewhat blank and saddened. Then, he was gone. Ranger-Two lagged behind and dropped away, the light reflecting from its white surface, faded away.

"_Okay, alright I'm nosing down. Approaching the event horizon."_

His voice was eerily calm, trying desperately to contain the panic and fear in his voice, and the ever growing sadness that he would never see his children again.

"_Portside, dipping down beneath it. To go through it."_

Static began to fill the channel, making it painfully clear that he was heading towards the blackhole.

"_Heading towards blackness. It's all black… I have a visual on the event..."_

Amelia dipped her head and cried, her tears streaking down her cheeks and splashing onto the visor of her helmet. There was another friend gone. Despite everything that had happened, he still chose to humanity's future over the possibility of ever seeing his own children ever again. Out of everyone on this mission, he had the most to lose, and he most likely lost it all now.

…

**Edmunds**

Brand tugged the tunic of her cryosleep wear as she sat in the pod, staring aimlessly at the Spartan room of her prefab shelter. CASE and CAL would be running perimeter checks around the clock, while she would be under the ice. Edmunds never made it; he was crushed by a landslide while still in cryosleep. Only CAL had survived, and with the help of CASE, the robot found sunlight again.

She had so desperately hoped to see him again after all these years, prayed to some deity out there that he would still be alive. But fate could only be so kind. Edmunds had died long before she arrived. She had to keep reminding herself that what were a few weeks for her was well over a century for the people of Earth. That was relativity, what was a heartbeat for her, was a lifetime for someone else.

In a desperate attempt to maintain her sanity, she had set up a little memorial for those of _Endurance_ and _Lazarus_, adding worlds that did their best to do justice to the men and women he boldly went into the unknown, giving up all they held dear in the hopes that one day, mankind would thrive once more.

Her eyes looked down at her pale skin. She wondered if Cooper and TARS had survived. She doubted it, but she so desperately wanted to be wrong. Because if she was right, then everyone on Earth was dead or dying, and she would have to live with the guilt that she had been part of a monstrous lie.

Lying down onto the form fitting gel bed, she zipped up the inner bag, and closed her eyes.

…

**Revival**

Amelia felt her cold skin prickle from the warm air. She slowly opened her eyes, but they screamed in defiance as something bright assaulted her senses. Her muscles twitched as she felt a hand pushed against her back, moving her into an upright position.

"Hey, hey," a familiar voice drawled.

_No. It can't be._

"Easy. Easy."

Brand opened her dark brown eyes, and locked onto a set of grey blues.

"C-Cooper?" she whispered softly.

"Yeah, it's me," he beamed.

"I-I… Cooper?" It's… it's… you can't be…"

Tears of joy streamed down her cheeks as she quickly pulled him into an embrace, wrapping her arms around him as she buried her face into his chest. He was here, alive. She wasn't alone. Everything, was going to be okay.

**... **

**A/N: Watched the "detach" and ending scene over and over and over again… all the feels. I might go back to Chapter 1 and rewrite a few segments simply because I have access to **_**Interstellar**_** now, so I can match the dialogue to the film.**

**On another note, hope you've enjoyed this chapter and follow me on Tumblr.**


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